A former police inspector has told court he cannot remember any orders after the match commander authorised a gate at Hillsborough to be opened.
Robert McRobbie was in the ground’s police control box in April 1989. Mr McRobbie told Preston Crown Court that David Duckenfield twice refused requests from an officer to open a gate to relieve a crush outside the ground before agreeing to a final “frantic” appeal. The third final request warned that fans could be killed or injured if the gate was not opened. Mr Duckenfield, 74, denies the gross negligence manslaughter of 95. Former chief superintendent Mr Duckenfield, of Ferndown, Dorset, was match commander at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
Part of the prosecution case against Mr Duckenfield is that he gave no thought to what would happen when people flooded through the gate and were drawn down a tunnel to pens that were already overcrowded with spectators. Mr Duckenfield is on trial alongside Sheffield Wednesday’s ex-club secretary Graham Mackrell, 69, who denies a charge relating to the stadium’s safety certificate and a health and safety charge.
The trial continues.
BBC
The 95 victims
What happened?
In April 15 1989, 95 Liverpool fans were killed at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield in what is known as the worst stadium related disaster in English sports history. The 95 fans were crushed to death and hundreds more were injured after the central pens at the Leppings Lane end became overcrowded.
The disaster began with hundreds of Liverpool fans began streaming towards towards the stadium and the Leppings Lane stand allocated to them. With more fans arriving Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, the police commander in charge of the match, ordered exit gate C to be opened.That decision forced even more fans into the already overcrowded central pens. As more people entered the pens they were forced up against those in front, who in turn were pushed up against the perimeter fencing. The situation worsened when at 3.04pm Liverpool’s’ Peter Beardsley struck the crossbar of the Forest goal. As the crowd surged one of the metal crush barriers in pen 3 gave way, sending tumbling over one another and into the pen’s front fences. Many tried to escape and were pulled up to the West Stands by other fans. The inquest later heard that those still trapped in the pens were packed so tightly that many died of compressive asphyxia while standing.
Police officers, stewards and members of the St John Ambulance service appeared understaffed and overwhelmed by the situation and many uninjured fans decided to assisted the injured, with several attempting CPR on the dying, while others tore down advertising hoardings with their bare hands to use as stretchers for the injured. In the end only 14 of the 96 who were fatally injured arrived at hospital.
South Yorkshire police officers would later accuse Liverpool fans of having caused the deaths themselves, claiming they were drunk, late, violent and uncooperative. The 2016 inquest jury rejected the accusations and concluded the victims had been unlawfully killed.
